Class of 2013 Is a Whole New Ballgame

As the class of 2013 dispenses with college, reflects on commencement oratory and embraces quests beyond the campus cocoon, the rest of us would do well to consider their context and our choice.

This is a class rooted in the last century (born in 1991), but firmly planted in the new millennium. They have always been able to read books on electronic screens, had a Cartoon Network, Food Channel and galaxy of video alternatives, and take as a given that women outnumber men in college.

They are also a class whose youth has been bookended by the catastrophe of 9/11, seared into their consciousness as fifth-graders, and the Sandy Hook and Boston Marathon horrors, which abruptly imprinted their graduating year.

They have seen the United States unendingly at war, a collapsing economy, unprecedented questions about the efficacy of college and accelerating technological innovation. Heck, they've even seen the Red Sox win two World Series.

Despite helicopter parents, the replacement of grammar with 140-character limitations and the proliferation of household names of dubious talent, the class of 2013 offers a potent sense of engagement and commitment to society and their peers (although not necessarily in that order). Now, they enter the workforce — or try to.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that employers prefer experience to academic record. In science and technology, experience is preferred by 50 percent of employers; academics by only 19 percent. For students seeking business careers, the breakdown is 40-23, and even in education, experience is preferred 36-21. Seven in 10 organizations surveyed by the National Association of Colleges and Employers said they prefer to hire candidates with relevant work experience.

The oft-repeated preference is for students who think critically and have workplace experience doing so. Yet a national study by Intern Bridge found that less than half of students granted academic credit for an internship had to write a paper or deliver a presentation on what they learned during their experience.

Employers will notice that this month's graduates are wired differently, regardless of academic or experiential history. Their notion of work departs from generations past, as they instinctively recognize (and are untroubled by) the likelihood of multiple job changes, even multiple career changes, ahead.

They are at times startlingly revealing and straightforward, optimistic and ever-sensitive (and connected) to peers. Sharing has eclipsed privacy, and posting photos is more ubiquitous than postage stamps. Their generation sends and receives an average of 88 texts a day, the Pew Research Center found, and 70 percent check their phones every hour. They are apt to be likable, even as bullying is more prevalent and politics is increasingly divisive and nasty.

They check in with parents more than previous generations — but of course, they can. They are looking to live in cities their parents abandoned, and many enter Teach for America or AmeriCorps. The impact of changes in health care and life expectancy are also playing out in family finances and employment decisions.

Employers should also take note: This generation of graduates is more accepting of others than its predecessors. They are unfazed by differences — rather, they value them. For businesses seeking to gain a foothold or grow market share in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent global economy, these can be attractive candidates. They're predisposed to do what their new business colleagues have had to learn — across technologies and across cultures.

The job market remains tight, but encouraging. Employers say they expect to hire 13 percent more college graduates from the class of 2013 compared with a year ago, according to a NACE survey. They'll have a lot to learn, but a fair amount to teach, too. As they find their way, our better choice is to help them — because as never before, we need each others' guidance. And probably will for quite some time.

Bernard L. Kavaler is founding principal of Express Strategies, a communications consulting firm, and compiles the blog Connecticut by the Numbers at http://www.ctbythenumbers.info. Previously, he was assistant vice chancellor for public affairs for the Connecticut State University System.